One Womb, Two Embryos, One Baby

In conjunction with my IVF, I had 13 eggs sucked from my enlarged ovaries at the beginning of September.  Not a huge number by IVF standards, but definitely respectable.  The next day I got a phone call that of those 13 embryos only 5 were mature.  Of those 5, only 3 fertilized.  Going from 13 to 5 was kind of a let down.  I had anticipated at least 10 being viable for fertilization.  And only having 3 fertilized didn't give me great odds of having any that would be available for transfer as embryos don't exactly have the highest mortality rate.  But I felt confident then as I do now that the Lord is intimately engineering this whole process and that surely He wanted me to know that He was in charge.  So, I laughed to myself, threw up my arms and tried my absolute best not to worry.

A couple of days later (Labor Day) Matt and I drove down to Rockville, MD for the last time to have two of them transferred into my eagerly awaiting womb.  The last embryo, kept for observation and hopefully to freeze for later didn't survive the next few days and was eventually discarded.  For the next couple of weeks I did my best to stay calm and patient while I awaited the news of the success or failure of our fertility attempt, but by the time the 20th of September rolled around I was beyond ready to know.  The three hour wait between the blood test and the results were excruciating, but thankfully the news came back super positive.

The target HcG level for my blood test was between 100-200 and mine was 676.  Not only good, but fabulous.  Could the high level mean I was pregnant with twins?  This made me nervous and hopeful and excited.  Everyone I knew was hopeful for twins for me, and twins would definitely jumpstart my little family.  I became sure that we would be having twins while Matthew continued to hope for one at a time.  The next step was an ultrasound at 7 weeks to see how my little embryos were doing and find out just how many they were.

The morning of the appointment I prayed that whatever the outcome that Matt and I would feel at peace, thinking at the time that it would surely be Matthew who would need it most.  We got in to see the Ultrasound Tech but instead of the two I felt certain of she only found one baby.  My disappointment at only finding one lasted for only a moment.  When she finally turned the monitor so I could see, I saw the tiny little heartbeat flickering on the screen and at that moment I felt complete peace.  It was real.  Despite feeling little or no pregnancy symptoms, I really had a little life growing inside me.

I felt a little shell shocked at its reality.  Is this really happening?  Did all the home pregnancy tests and the blood tests really not lie?  Am I really pregnant and is that really a heartbeat I see on the screen?  Somehow feeling sad there weren't two seemed completely ungrateful and inappropriate.  The kind technician gave us some pictures of our Wee Babe carefully pointing out where it was in the picture and we left for lunch.

We made it to downtown State College and after the initial shock passed I wanted to announce to everyone who passed us on the street that I had a baby growing inside me!!!  So there you have it.  I am not having twins, but I do have A Bun in My Oven!